Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-01-13
WHISkY'S WORK.


Some OF the Evidence Adduced Before the
Coroner's Inquest on the Recent BaIti-
more & Ohio Accident at Republic, GA
Drunken Engineer Evidently RESPONSE
BILE.
TIFFIy o. Jan. SIN the inquest over
the remains of the victims of the Balti-
more & Ohio disaster at Republic, yester-
day, Lynn Fletcher, conductor Of the
freight train, was the first witness. DE
started from Garrett, Ind, (his honey
January 3. at $40 a. m. with the train.
Had fifteen and half car loads Of freight
going through Seneca County. Edward
Killer, engineer and W. j. Cullison, fire.
man, Chas Snyder and P. j. Hayes, brake
men, The engine worked all right till the
steam gave out. 1t was hard to keep up
steam Received no orders in reference to
limited passenger west-bound; did not
learn at Tiffin where No. was, nor did
not know where it was, knew it's time for
points east of Tifin. Stopped some
minutes in Tiffin. Don't know
if any intoxicants were got
there Was none on board. The engineer
drank at Bloomdale and Fostoria, two
drinks of whisky at each place. Dldn'1
know he was in the habit of getting
drunk: can't tell whether he was drunk
then no not; stopped at Seneca, three and
one-half miles, and side-tracked to let the
east-bound passenger go by Ii passed at
liz a. m 1t is four miles from there TO
the scene of the collision, up grade. 1t
was showing and blowing When one and
half miles east / went to the engine and
told the engineer to hurry and get
to Republic. 1t was then l:3o a.
m. No 5 was due at Repuohc
at 2 a. m We had thirty minutes TO make
three and half miles Found sixty
pounds of steam on. The engineer SAID
nothing. Took me ten or fifteen minutes
to go from caboose to engine. Took red
and white light and went ahead; saw No.
S coming before had gone ten car lengths;
ran as hard as / could, and signaied- The
express was hundre yards from me
when signaled, and the engineer shut on
the steam and jumped off the engine.
Ny engineer had paid no attention wnen
I said that No. was coming. 1t Is
the engineers duty to send out fagman
when the steam gives out. He could have
done this and stopped No. easily. He
could have backed down and been all
right. He gave me no notice of the steam
giving out. He had a time-card ana
watch. Had he done his duty under the
ri es. he would have prevented this col
lision. The only reason / can give is neg
lect The engineer acted like man VINO
had too much whisky. Had my engineer
reversed his engine the wreck would not
have been near as bad.
remained at the scene of the collision
till D. m. saw two persons who had es-
CAPPED from the smoking car. don't
know how many burned up l worked on
the north side. Our engine was In rum
ming order up to the time OF the wreck.
The engine did not seem to care Tor any
thing vi en- 1 went to the engine. we
agreed at Seneca siding that we would
make the run. The boiler was nearly dry
when he shut off his engine. Had he re-
versed when jumped off, he could have
prevented such a wreck. ] saw no person
alive in the smoker. The smoker seemed
to be in a blaze. In five minutes the
cars were blazing ten feet high; heard no.
body in the smoker; helped push back the
sleepers. Took four or five minutes. By
that time could make out nothing in the
burning cars. Did not give the engineer
any orders when jumped off to give sig
nal. He acted like man with too much
whisky. who had sat down by the FIRE
When we left Garrett he was lively, at
Senaca dull and Indifferent. There were
three men in the engine-engineer- fire
man and Brakeman Snyder. / think the
fireman did the best he could.
W. J. Cullison testified: Was fireman
on the freight; live at Turkey Creek, Ind.
Had been fireman three weeks Was on
freight engine the morning of the col
Esion. Did not see Killer drink any
liquor. and drank none myself. No special
trouble to keep up steam before we reach
ed Seneca. Had 40 pounds when we
left there. Steam began to fall about
two miles out and dropped rapidly.
Noticed it at 40, 100 and so lbs; near
Republic switch noticed 60 lbs. Not
more than quarter of mile from coils
ion the fire and water were all right. 1t
was up grade. Engineer had less than
one gauge of water when conductor came;
Killer was awake, but quiet. his face for
ward. did not talk with him about steam
falling Had not noticed the time until the
conductor came in. Had thought of dam
ger. Killer paid no attention to conductor
coming in or jumping off. He sat still,
said nothing and did the same after we
left Seneca. / jumped off before Killer.
He followed. Think the freight had stop
ped before the collision; heard groans in
in sleeper. Somebody mentioned man
who threw cards out of the baggage car
which was afire first. That and the
smoker were damned together. Saw one
man fastened between smoker and bag
gage car with his body exposed
Chas. Snyder, sworn: Live at Column
bus, O.; was front brakeman on the
freight. saw Engineer Killer take one
drink at Bloomdale: saw no whisky on
the train; we started for Republic thirty
five minutes before the west-bound train
was que IHefe. went TO the can one milo
east of the siding; the engineer did not
look at mis- watch or say any thing about
failing steam; noticed the slowing up of
the train: had one guage of water one
mile west of the collision; usually we have
three guages for the same work; the
fireman was green hand, but did the
best he could: the engineer spoke
to the conductor this confirms the cen
ductor's testimony; the engineer seemed
not to realize the danger: did not lump
till he saw the other engine;
was last off; the engineer
shut off the steam, but did not re-
verse his engine. There was steam
enough if he had reversed to run the train
back down the grade, giving the passen-
ger bakes time to operate and weaken the
shock. The conductor Grid: Here she
comes" before he was three car lengths
ahead The cars were afire instantly:
saw Baggage Master Gates lying on north
side: on other side saw half the body of a
man, alive, wedged between the cars. He
said: For Gods sake, boys, try to get
me out of herer Heard no messages;
could see no passengers inside car. Our
engineer gave no signal till he saw the en-
CINE of the other train. Saw one man
from sleeper who had been hurt.
. -
Terrific Gas Explosion.